FrameThrower · Actors · Mark Margolis
Mark Margolis
5 films · 321 frames · top-billed in 1 · 1991–2014
Born 26 November 1939 · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA · died 3 August 2023
Mark Margolis was an American actor, who had been making films since 1976.
Margolis went to Temple University briefly before moving to New York City, where he studied drama with Stella Adler and at the Actors Studio. He was perhaps most famous for his supporting roles in Scarface and the films of Darren Aronofsky: π, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler, and Black Swan. Aronofsky wrote the role of Father Avila in The Fountain specifically for Margolis.
He had recurring roles on numerous TV shows, including The Equalizer, HBO's Oz, Law And Order, Crossing Jordan and most recently Showtime's Californication and Breaking Bad. He also appeared in a first season episode of Quantum Leap.
In 1991, he also played Helmut Dieter in soap opera Santa Barbara.
How their films are shot
Measured across 321 frames from the 5 films we hold. This is the look of the work Mark takes, not a claim about any single frame — we index the cast of a film, never the people in a shot.
Across the 5 films we hold, 53% of their frames are night, 44% low key — the look of the work Mark takes.
Time of day
Lighting
Shot size
Camera angle
Mood
Films in the library
Every poster opens that film — stills, cinematography notes and colour palette.
A reference database for filmmakers
FrameThrower is a fully machine-searchable film database and visual reference library — all 321 frames from Mark Margolis's 5 films, and 5,000+ films besides, indexed frame by frame and readable by AI. Search it in plain language, from a reference image, or by colour; call it from an API, an MCP server or an SDK. It's the reference layer for making the next movie.